For these Long Islanders, a Mustang's more than a car

A 2012 Mustang Boss 302 owned by Phil Saglimbene of Plainview is on display at the Mustang and Shelby Club of Long Island's "Mustang Showdown" held at Levittown Ford on Hempstead Turnpike. Levittown Ford donated a portion of the proceeds of the car show to the Wounded Warrior Project to support injured U.S. veterans. (July 28, 2013) Photo Credit: Michael Cusanelli

For a certain kind of Long Island driver, a car is more than a way to get from here to there, and a Ford Mustang is much more than a car.

On Sunday at Levittown Ford Dealership, members of the Mustang & Shelby Club of Long Island showed off their buffed-up versions of the venerable Ford line as hundreds more dedicated followers got a glimpse of one of Detroit's enduring successes.

Some of the older models, dating to 1965, appeared perfectly preserved, such as Mike Basile's maroon fastback he bought new for $2,700 in 1967. Basile said he paid for it with money saved from years of afternoon labor in a Brooklyn bakery.

"I had my pop cosign for me," said Basile, 64, as he stood next to the shining fastback.

Peter Piciulo, 44, of Huntington rebuilt his 1978 Mustang Cobra II from little more than rubber and rust after finding it decomposing in a Merrick driveway in 2009 and buying it.

He rebuilt it with period parts, down to the vinyl and cloth upholstery sourced from an Oklahoma man he found on the Web.

Some of the cars are so cherished that their owners don't let them out of the garage from November to April, because of the road salt, or when it rains, out of fear for their paint jobs. Their owners kept thick photo albums like baby books in the trunk, except instead of babies they showed engine blocks at different stages of assembly.

Men walked around the lot taking their own pictures of engines. For this to make sense, "You got to love cars," said Elliott Weiner of Smithtown.

Weiner owns a near-exact replica of the Mustang Steve McQueen drove at high speeds through the streets of San Francisco in the movie "Bullitt." He has a license plate that reads BULITPRF and a specially made jacket similar to what McQueen wore in the movie. He loves the movie and sometimes re-watches the famous chase scene, turning the volume up so loud that his girlfriend can hear from a different floor of the house. "You're watching that again?" he said she usually asks.